For a while all the odds looked stacked against it too - reshoots, script changes and a director in Gareth Edwards whose last blockbuster "Godzilla" had visual flair but no humanity, not to mention the fact that the film would be asking us to learn a dozen new characters with strange names, none of which were Skywalker or Solo.
What we know is she's a child of war, and an almost apathetic one at that, until she's rescued from imprisonment by a group of rebels hoping her familial connections might help with their efforts against the Empire.
Eventually they meet the blind Chirrut (Donnie Yen), his decidedly more practical companion Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang) and the conflicted pilot (Riz Ahmed), forming a motley crew of unlikely heroes.
The real feat of "Rogue One" is that Edwards and screenwriters Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy create a world with actual stakes, making the audience feel for and worry about characters we've just met.
The only downside of the thrilling battles in the third act is that it means less time with the leads - especially Jones, Luna and Mendelsohn, whose performances make up for the script's occasional deficiencies.